Dog poop has green beans. Can dogs digest veggies? How often to feed?

Hi and thanks for posting! I would feed 1/4 cup of plain frozen green beans or cleaned raw green beans in his food twice a day. No need to crush the beans. I give green beans to my dogs every day and they go wild for them! I hope this helps and thanks for posting on Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

While dogs can eat plant material, they are carnivorous. This is show in the design of their teeth. They have sharp, blade like molars that are designed for slicing food rather than grinding it. Herbivores, like cows, have molars that are flatter and are made to grind up the plant material. In addition, their digestive system is designed to digest protein and fat, and due to that, they have trouble digesting produce. Produce should therefore be pureed to help them fully digest it.

Thee is no reason to give your dog green beans--pureed or not. A good quality commercial dog food will have all the nutrients necessary for a well-balanced diet. There could be a circumstance where someone besides you might have to care for your dog temporarily, and that person might not be as willing as you to do home cooking. This could cause the dog to go off his feed if he is used to having the beans with his meals.

If you feed a high quality complete dog food for medium sized dogs, you do not need to supplement her food as it has everything your dog needs. You do not need to purree steamed vegetables. Dogs do not need extra veggies or fruit when they have a good quality complete food. They will digest what the body can use, and eliminate extra fiber and whatever ingredient the body cannot digest. As dogs are not herbivores, they do not have the capability of completely digesting vegetables and fruit, even if you steam and purree them.

Dogs are omnivores and require an appropriate balance of nutrients as a part of a healthy diet. Most dogs do well with twice daily feedings. Typically, I recommend commercially prepared foods, such as Science Diet, Royal Canin, and Purina ProPlan. However, many people prefer preparing their dog's food at home. Balanceit.com is a website out of UC-Davis that has a wide variety of recipes for home cooked diets with appropriate vitamin and mineral supplementation. I am not aware of any appropriately balanced vegan diets for dogs, but a vegetarian diet is certainly possible. Common fruits and vegetables that Pelu could consume include green beans, peas, carrots, beans, and apples. I don't understand your question about "dollops" of fruits and vegetables. Simply follow any home cooked recipe closely and be sure to supplement so that Pelu does not experience any mineral deficiencies.

You are doing a good job with her feeding. As dogs become adults they often will only eat twice a day, and less sometimes than when they were growing. As long as she’s a normal weight I would feed her twice a day and an additional bedtime snack so she doesn’t have an empty stomach overnight, I feed Hills food and I like it because it has everything a dog needs. Other food provide an excess of calories, protein or fat, much more than they need. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Snowball.

It is important to monitor her body weight, condition and coat health and stool quality in order to assess how well balanced her nutritional state is. Many vegetable and grain particles can retain size and structure of the fiberous nature even though the dissolvable nutrients may have been absorbed. Dogs digest neat based products much easier